Rotary presses are often used in connection with mass production or manufacturing systems to cut (e.g., pre-notch, punch, shear, etc.) material such as, for example, sheet material, strip material, continuous web material, etc. For example, rotary presses can be used in connection with roll-forming systems, which move a strip material through successive pairs of rollers that progressively bend and form the strip material to a desired shape and cross-section. A rotary press can be used to perform a series of operations prior to roll-forming the strip material to facilitate producing a desired product. Such operations may include cutting, pre-notching, punching and/or shearing the strip material. Unlike a standard material press, which requires material to be stationary when shearing or punching the material, a rotary press can cut non-stationary material, thereby, eliminating the need to stop the material each time a cutting operation is performed. This allows the material to maintain a relatively continuous forward movement through a post process such as a roll-forming process.
A traditional rotary press is driven by a respective drive member such as, for example, a motor. The motor causes opposing upper and lower press rams to move along substantially circular paths in opposing directions so that the upper and lower rams come together at a cutting point (e.g., a shearing point, a punching point, a nip point, etc.). When the upper and lower rams meet at the cutting point, the rams are moving in the direction of the material flow to enable cutting the material as it moves.